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The Engineering Place

Engineering Design Process

The engineering design process is a series of steps that you repeat to develop or improve a product, process, or system. You can start anywhere in the process, however, most engineers begin at Ask or Improve. Failure is always a part of the process... so is learning from failure!

1. Ask

  • What is your design supposed to do?
  • How will you know if it’s doing what you want? What could keep you from making it do that?
  • How will you test your design?

2. Imagine

  • Apply knowledge and creativity to brainstorm ideas together.
  • Agree on one to try!

3. Plan

  • Consider your materials and resources.
  • Sketch and draw the details.
  • Pitch your plan.

4. Create

  • Follow the plan.
  • Test it out and compare your results to what you wanted or expected.

5. Evaluate

  • Analyze your test results.
  • What change would make the biggest impact on meeting your goal?

6. Share

  • Communicate your results with others.
  • Explain your processes and receive feedback.

Educators are encouraged to explain this five-step process to students, as well as display it in their classrooms as a reference.

The Engineering Design Process we use is adapted from the version designed by the Boston Museum of Science’s Engineering is Elementary program.

Engineering Habits of Mind

Engineers don’t just know facts. They think in a particular way. These habits of mind show up in every Engineering Place program:

  • Systems thinking — seeing how the parts of a problem connect.
  • Creativity — generating more than one possible solution.
  • Optimism — believing a problem can be solved, even when the first attempt fails.
  • Collaboration — building better solutions by working with others.
  • Communication — explaining your thinking and your design.
  • Ethical consideration — thinking about who a design affects and how.

Download the Poster

  • Print-Ready PDF Poster (14.22″ x 10.67″)
  • Higher-resolution image (11.0″ x 8.25″) — opens in a new window; save via your browser
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  • Text-only description, for accessibility